Dick Enberg may have formally retired from baseball broadcasting following the 2016 season.
But he still kept up with the game, and when the Padres made a trade with the Phillies last week, he tweeted — yes, tweeted — his analysis, capped by his signature phrase, "Oh, my!"
Enberg, the Michigan-born broadcaster whose rise to fame included a childhood spent on the farms of Armada, Mich., and a college education at Central Michigan University before he went on to a Hall-of-Fame career, died Thursday at the age of 82, a spokesman for CMU confirmed to The News.
He died of a heart attack at home in La Jolla, Calif., according to multiple reports.
Enberg grew up a huge Tigers fan, and always wanted to be Al Kaline, he said on numerous occasions.
He never got to be Kaline, so he turned to the next best thing, and that was broadcasting.
More: Dick Enberg: From Armada to CMU to Cooperstown
During his swan song from full-time broadcasting in 2016, he was invited to broadcast a Tigers game at Comerica Park, and old friends at the Lions Club in Armada gathered for a watch party. And in 2017, after he officially retired from doing Padres games, the Tigers invited him back, to work an August Tigers-Dodgers series at Comerica Park. He worked alongside Kirk Gibson, and was in heaven.
Enberg was born in Mount Clemens and raised in Armada, in Macomb County, always telling anybody who would listen that, someday, he'd be a Tiger. His father would tease him about such a proclamation.
"Yeah, we'll all go down to Briggs Stadium someday and there will be Dick and he'll be shouting, 'Peanuts! Popcorn!'" Enberg said during his speech in July 2015 in Cooperstown, N.Y., after accepting the Ford C. Frick Award and being inducted into the broadcaster's wing of the Hall of Fame. "My friends in high school and college still remind me, 'Hey, Enberg, you only talk a good game.'
"I guess it all worked out."
Enberg first hit in big in the early 1960s, after graduating from Central Michigan in 1957.
He moved to Los Angeles and got a job calling California Angels baseball games and Los Angeles Rams football games. With the Angels, he was on the mic in 1973 at his old stomping grounds, Tiger Stadium, where Nolan Ryan was no-hitting the Tigers. That game is legendary, for the folk story of Tigers slugger and clown Norm Cash bringing a table leg — or a piano leg, depending on who's story you believe — to the plate late in the game.
Umpire Ron Luciano told Cash he couldn't use that, to which Cash replied, "It doesn't matter. I'm not going to hit him anymore."
In 1975, Enberg's profile grew as he joined NBC Sports, as he broadcast high-profile MLB, NFL, NBA, college football and college basketball games, along with such marquee events as the Super Bowl, the World Series, Wimbledon and French Open tennis tournaments, the U.S. Open golf tournament, big-time boxing and horse racing, and the Olympics.
His signature phrase was, "Oh, my!" and one he would work into poignant TV moments as well as casual conversation over the phone.
Enberg later joined CBS and added U.S. Open tennis as well as The Masters and PGA Championship golf events to his resume.
In 2009, he returned to local baseball broadcasting, taking over the Padres play-by-play duties, which he continued through 2016. Recently, in retirement, he launched a podcast.
Through the years, Enberg also hosted game shows and made several TV and film cameos.
But baseball was his true love — his Holy Grail — and he wasn't shy about noting the ties between baseball and religion. After all, he liked to point out, he was the broadcaster of the Angels and the Padres. In 2015, he joined longtime Detroit News writer Tom Gage in Baseball's media wing of the Hall of Fame.
"My dream has taken me to a great place," said Enberg, whose early mentors included Ernie Harwell and Van Patrick.
"'Oh, God,' 'Oh, my,' and 'How about that?'"
Born Jan. 9, 1935, Enberg played baseball at CMU, worked at WSAM in Saginaw and was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity during his early college days in Mount Pleasant, before moving on to graduate school at Indiana, where he earned his master's degree.
He grew up in Armada at 33 Mile and North Avenue, entertaining himself by hitting rocks over telephone wires. He batted left-handed, a tribute to his childhood idol Ted Williams. When Williams' Red Sox were in town, Enberg the kid would hitchhike down to then-Briggs Stadium, making sure to arrive early enough to watch batting practice.
Early and late in life, Enberg — who was married to Barbara, and had three children — remained committed to Central Michigan. In 1993, he entered the Central Michigan Hall of Fame, in 2012 an Enberg bust was unveiled on campus, and even this year, Enberg was on campus for the athletic department's annual golf outing in June. Enberg and his wife made sure to make athletic director Michael Alford feel welcome in his new job, even teaming with another CMU alumnus, Todd Anson and his wife, to match all the silent-auction donations, resulting in a banner fundraising day of nearly $240,000.
"Nobody carried their love for Central Michigan as far and wide as Dick Enberg," Alford said in a statement. "It's amazing how often he worked in his ties to CMU while on a national or international broadcast. He was an amazingly kind, thoughtful and welcoming man.
"He made a matching gift at my opening press conference at CMU, and we spoke often. I'm so fortunate to have been able to spend time with Dick, introduce him to my family and understand what an important role CMU played in his life."
tpaul@detroitnews.com
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